Left with 4 Randoms

[Hydrus]

Like almost everyone else at the moment, I'm currently addicted to the super zombie shooting romp Left 4 Dead. I think it's the kind of wonderfully balanced game that is easy to pick up and play straight away, but very difficult to master.

Anyway, during a random Xbox live match last night, I realised something. The three other random players that you join up with to kill zombies perfectly mirror the situation 'in game'. That is, four random strangers who happen to be immune to the virus meet up and kill zombies and escape. The random xbox live matches are an excellent approximation of how the actual characters in the game might be feeling. They hardly know their companions, have no idea of their capabilities, yet must rely on them completely if they plan on surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Obviously, this wasn't an intentional move by Valve (although if it was, we should all bow down before their Solomon-like wisdom), but I thought it was a fantastic coincidence. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other example where an actual (even unavoidable) gameplay mechanic could be seen to be realism - enhancement.

Thoughts?

 

[Hydrus]

....can't it be both?

 

[meatloaf231]

Hmmm... interesting parallel...

I wouldn't recommend writing your dissertation on it, but you could use it as a quick reference in something or another.

 

[Archereus]

that makes alot of sense. Now that i think about it, it was most likely unintentional but either way an interesting coincidence to put players in a scenario like so. Good observation

 

[Flap Jack452]

Like almost everyone else at the moment, I'm currently addicted to the super zombie shooting romp Left 4 Dead. I think it's the kind of wonderfully balanced game that is easy to pick up and play straight away, but very difficult to master.

Anyway, during a random Xbox live match last night, I realised something. The three other random players that you join up with to kill zombies perfectly mirror the situation 'in game'. That is, four random strangers who happen to be immune to the virus meet up and kill zombies and escape. The random xbox live matches are an excellent approximation of how the actual characters in the game might be feeling. They hardly know their companions, have no idea of their capabilities, yet must rely on them completely if they plan on surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Obviously, this wasn't an intentional move by Valve (although if it was, we should all bow down before their Solomon-like wisdom), but I thought it was a fantastic coincidence. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other example where an actual (even unavoidable) gameplay mechanic could be seen to be realism - enhancement.

Thoughts?

I agree to an extent, except in the game if you get eaten nothing happens in real life, you just go back to the safe house. The experience in real life would be very different because your actual existence is on the line and one mistake means permanent death, no respawns. To quote FPS_Doug "what happens if i get lag in RL? I'm Dead!"

 

[KSarty]

Interesting read, but not everyone plays with just random people. I don't know how the 360 version sets up the games so I can't comment on that, but I play the PC version and I only play with people I know.

 

[JMeganSnow]

I can't think of anything similar from particular games I've played, although I think one of the reasons why amnesia of the main character is so popular is because it puts the player and the protagonist in the same boat: not knowing jack.

I also read an interesting article [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18571] about an inadvertent plague on a World of Warcraft server that mimicked the spread of disease in the real world so well that researchers are considering testing their epidemiology theories using a similar setup.

There was also an attempt in 2001 to do a game called Majestic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_(video_game)] that actually interfaced with your real life--people would call you and make vague threats, send you emails, call your boss, etc. It was not a success, but it's along the lines that you're discussing.